The Gordon Research Conference on Nitric Oxide (NO) is designed to provide chemists, biologists, clinicians and other scientists with state-of-the-art knowledge on the basic structure/function relationships of NO generating systems, and the biology of NO as a signaling and effector molecule in physiology and pathophysiology. This research conference is held every two years and the next conference will take place at the Four Points Sheraton/Holiday Inn Express in Ventura, CA on Feb 13-18, 2011. Approximately 150 participants from academia, government and industry are expected to attend this conference. Funds are requested to support travel costs and conference registration fees for participants (i.e. speakers/discussion leaders from the United States and abroad and for exceptional graduate students/post-doctoral candidates and other junior scientists working in the field of NO biology). The speakers have been selected to address unresolved questions and cover emerging new areas in the field and to balance the program with senior and junior investigators. Sessions will include a side-by-side comparison of bacterial, plant and mammalian NO producing and sensing systems;their involvement in regulating substrate utilization, intermediary metabolism, and mechanisms of coping with oxygen shortage;and the signal transduction pathways involved. In addition, novel therapeutic avenues will be covered with an emphasis on understanding the molecular processes involved. Carl Nathan has kindly agreed to present the Keynote Lecture. Although this meeting does not focus on infectious disease, he will touch in his presentation on many of the mechanistic aspects covered in individual sessions in other contexts, adding distinction to the meeting and offering a unique learning opportunity for those in attendance. In addition, there are two prominently featured and moderated poster sessions selected from abstracts submitted to the meeting, a special session on "Current Controversies and Late-Breaking Findings" and a "Hot Topics" session that encourages last-minute submissions of exciting findings from new or established investigators culminating in awards given to several of the junior investigators. The main strength of this meeting is the opportunity for cross-disciplinary interactions in a highly focused, yet informal intellectually stimulating atmosphere. The Gordon Conference on NO plays an essential role in providing guidance and exploring new vistas in this important field of basic and translational research.